Anti-Obamacare Ads: A $440 Million Mistake

Two recently released studies indicate that advertisements funded by right-leaning political organizations did not have their intended effect. Before the implementation of key coverage provisions of the Affordable Care Act, assessments of the complex reform’s ability to improve healthcare quality, its potential to limit personal freedom through mandated insurance coverage, and its impact on the federal government’s finances were largely conflicting.

It therefore became much easier for the reform’s critics to both politicize and attack it. But as the impact of the Affordable Care Act grows more apparent, arguments that once had the the ability to influence public opinion are not as potent — if they ever were.

Take for example the ad featuring “creepy Uncle Sam.” That minute-long video — which came with the tag “don’t let government play doctor” and asked viewers to “opt out” of Obamacare — was meant to prey on the fear that the reform would allow the government to intervene in the personal lives of Americans to an unbearable extent. While it received millions of views on YouTube, it has become apparent that such an exaggerated claim did not ring true to millions of enrollees.

Now, it seems puzzling that a character wearing an Uncle Sam mask and acting as a perverted gynecologist was chosen to be the face of the $750,000 anti-Obamacare campaign run by Generation Opportunity, an organization with a conservative, anti-Big Government slant backed by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.